IPL’22: Delhi Caps beat Mumbai by 4 wickets, in a thrilling match

Mumbai, March 27: Delhi Capitals registered 4-wicket win over five-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI) in their IPL’22 opener here at the Brabourne Stadium on Sunday. Lalit Yadav (48) and Axal Patel’s (38*) knocks helped DC register the win over MI with 10 balls to spare. Chasing 178, Delhi got off to a good start as openers Prithvi Shaw (38) and Tim Seifert (21) scored 30 runs in the first three overs. In the next over, Murugan Ashwin struck and dismissed Seifert as his googly went through the gap and knocked the stumps over. In the same over, he sent Mandeep Singh packing for duck. Fall of wickets continued as skipper Rishabh Pant (1) fell off Tymal Mills. He got a top edge that looped straight to third man, reducing DC to 32/3. Then Lalit Yadav replaced his captain. Basil Thampi came into attack in the 10 over and scalped crucial wickets of Shaw (38) and removed Rovman Powell for second ball duck in the same over. Thampi continued to wreak havoc for DC as he dismissed Shardul Thakur (22) in 14th over and onus shifted on Lalit and Axar Patel. The duo who took charge staged a stunning turnaround and guided their side to 4-wicket win over MI. For MI, Thampi and Murugan claimed three and two wickets, respectively while Mills got one. Putting to bat first, riding on Ishan Kishan’s innings 61-run knock and skipper Rohit Sharma’s 41-run innings, MI posted a total of 177/5. Mumbai had a flying start as the opening pair of skipper Sharma and Ishan posted 53 on the board in the powerplay and the five-time champ champions were 65/0 in 8 overs. But in the next over, Kuldeep Yadav gave first breakthrough to DC as he dismissed the skipper on 41, who pulled a length ball which landed into Rovman Powell hands. In the 11th over, Kuldeep removed Anmolpreet Singh for 8 to claim his second wicket and Khaleel Ahmed dismissed Tilak Verma (22) in the 15th over. In the very next over, Kuldeep scalped his third as he sent Kieron Pollard back to the hut for the mere 3 runs. Despite losing wickets on regular intervals, Ishan stood strong in the middle and kept the scoreboard moving. MI were reeling 159/5, when Khaleel got rid of Tim David in the penultimate over. In the final over, Daniel Sams’ six over long-off and back-to-back boundary from Ishan helped MI posted 177 for the loss of 5 wickets. For DC, Kuldeep scalped 3 wickets after conceding 18 runs in his four over quota and Khaleed took two after giving away 27 runs. Breif scores: Mumbai Indians 177/5 (Ishan Kishan 81*, Rohit Sharma 41; Kuldeep Yadav 3-18, Khaleed 2-27) Delhi Capitals 179/6 (Lalit Yadav 48*, Axar Patel 38*; Basil Thampi 3-35). (UNI)